Unions
Inequality continues to rise
A report by the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) and the University of NSW found that Australia’s richest 20 per cent own almost two thirds of the country’s wealth.
The report – Inequality in Australia – found the richest 20 per cent of Australian households own 62 per cent of all wealth, while the lowest 50 per cent own just 18 per cent.
The average household wealth in the highest 20 per cent group is $2.9 million, five times that of the middle 20 per cent and almost a hundred times that of the lowest 20 per cent at $30,000.
The top one per cent has an average weekly disposable income 26 times the income of a person in the lowest 5 per cent.
Acoss chief executive Cassandra Goldie said the report “deeply challenges our sense of Australia as an egalitarian country”.
“The Australian experience in recent decades shows that inequality has increased strongly in economic boom times and flattened with a slower economy and slow wage growth across the board,” she said.
The report warns that inconsistent social security policies, such as the decision to freeze Newstart payments while indexing pensions to earnings, a long-term trend towards greater inequality in hourly wage rates and growing inequality in the distribution of wealth, were likely to increase inequality.
Household wealth has become even more concentrated, it says, thanks in part to “generous tax treatment for superannuation and a property boom”.
You can read the full report at: https://www.acoss.org.au/.